Mary Breymann and her husband were out of carrots, but the white horse kept following them as they walked along the fence.

The Breymanns make regular visits to the Michigan State University’s Horse Teaching and Research Center.

“MSU is just so wonderful allowing the public to participate in all this,” said Mary Breymann, who came to visit the horse barn with her husband on Jan. 28. “It’s one of the hidden treasures of the Meridian Township.”

Breymann said her daughter loves horses. “She convinced us that she really need a horse,” Breymann said. “Now she is in Seattle so far away, but we still have the habit to visit these horses.”

The Breymanns usually visit the barn weekly during the warm weather, especially in June, when the barns have baby horses.

The MSU Teaching and Research Center typically keep its horses until they die.

“We try to keep them as long as we can. They live their life out,” said animal science junior Alexis Garbo, who works at the MSU horse barn. “Sometimes for health reasons, we have to put them down, but that’s only in certain circumstances. Sometimes people offer to retire them on their farm.”

LANSING — Michigan’s top commodity, milk, has suffered a series of economic blows since 2014.

When dairy cows produced about 9.6 billion pounds of milk in 2014, prices in the state began to drop, leaving farmers scrambling to sustain their businesses.

Michigan farmers produce 4.9 percent of the milk in the United States and are ranked 7th in production in the nation. However, over the last three years, dairy farmers have produced more milk than the market could process.

“The current supply of milk in Michigan is abundant but the processing capability hasn’t kept with this increase in supply. “says Burke Larsen of Larsen Farms in Scottville.

As a result, some farmers go out of business, use up their financial reserves or sell their herds says Zachary Clark, director of government relations at the National Farmers Union in Washington, D.C.

Ernie Birchmeier, a Michigan Farm Bureau livestock specialist, said that “dairy production is up because Michigan has the best dairy farm managers. In the last decade, we have added lots of cows to the herds.”

Clark said economic challenges in agriculture are affecting more than just dairy farmers. “Commodity prices across the board have been bad over the years. The prices of wheat, corn, soybeans and grain sorghum have been going down.”

Generally, when one crop or type of livestock is not doing well financially, farmers often use yields from other commodities that are doing well to balance their budgets. But when prices are bad across the board, it becomes difficult to offset low prices, Clark said.

For Michigan dairy farmers, the past few years have been challenging. To help address the problem of overproduction, dairy products are exported to other states.

But that comes with its own challenges.

Larsen said, “Sometimes milk has to be shipped to Florida because of the deficit Florida experiences due to heat. However, this increases transportation costs.”

And Clark said, “There is need for consolidation in the dairy industry. We need to see recognition out of federal programs, a fair pricing system through federal orders, an assistance program for farmers during uncertain economic times and supply management.”

To help address that challenge, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing,proposed a new farm bill which received bipartisan support in the Senate. She’s the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.

The state’s dairy industry supports 40,000 jobs and contributes more than $15 billion to the economy. according to Stabenow.

The new farm bill proposes several risk management and insurance tools intended to protect farmers from market uncertainties.

The Farm Bureau’s Birchmeier said the Senate action is a vital step towards the assistance needed by the state’s struggling dairy industry.

However, he said the legislation would not solve the problem of overproduction.

“The risk management tools proposed in the Senate allow farmers to protect a margin between prices and the cost of production. It’s not a fix and will not make farmers profitable,” Birchmeier said.

Mark Iciek, a board member of the Michigan Milk Producers Association from Gladwin, said, “There’s a long-term solution which is adding processing capacity. Several organizations are working to increase milk processing capacity but this is something that will take several years.

“At the moment, there is no short-term fix to this problem,” Iciek said.

Birchmeier said that to solve the problem of overproduction, people need to consume more dairy goods, adding that prices are reasonable and dairy is great source of protein.

“Milk contains nine nutrients that people need,” said Janice Jackson of the United Dairy Industry of Michigan, which promotes dairy products to the public.

A 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans report showed that there are four nutrients that Americans don’t consume enough. Three of those nutrients – calcium, vitamin D and potassium – are found in milk.

“Consuming milk has also been associated with reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, hypertension and type two diabetes in adults,” said Jackson.

Besides encouraging consumption, Larsen said trade plays a role in handling excess production.

“We need to push dairy products. Globally we are doing all right, domestically we need to improve.”

And Birchmeier said, “We need to increase trade worldwide and cut production in order to bring it in line with demand.”

LANSING — A lack of science in public decision making, punctuated by a misunderstanding and dislike of GMOs, are hurdles the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development face, Director Jamie Clover Adams said.

Public pushes against GMOs and for animal welfare improvements such as “cage-free” eggs hurt food producers financially because the efforts needed to adjust to public opinion cost more than people are willing to pay for the final product, Clover Adams said.

“There is not one lick of science out there that’s peer reviewed that says that genetically modified organisms are not safe,” Clover Adams said. “They’ve been out there for 25 years, there is not one lick of science, but that doesn’t seem to matter to people…

“People now are so far removed from food production, they don’t think about what it takes to get that to the plate.”

With new technologies on the horizon, the jury is out as to how the public will assess them.

One such technology us “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats,” better known as CRISPR. It’s a gene-editing technology that shows high promise for developments in animal welfare and improving crops, Clover Adams said.

CRISPR allows researchers to selectively remove, replace or “turn off” specific genes, which might be used in the future to correct mutations that lead to certain diseases, according to the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a biomedical and genomic research center.

The technology has potential applications in agricultural development.

Clover Adams said, “CRISPR, I think, is going to have a huge and significant impact. II can’t put a number on it, but it will have more of an impact than genetic modification.”

Kate Thiel, a field crops and advisory team specialist for the Michigan Farm Bureau, said Michigan’s agriculture industry is excited and cautiously optimistic about CRISPR and its potential applications, particularly in disease resistance, drought tolerance and nutritional value.

“Ag is looking at this as a way to help us continue to feed that growing population, to do so in a safe, healthy and effective manner and to provide nutritious food sources for folks,” Thiel said. “This is a more timely and more precise, more simple and more effective model than what we’ve been able to use to date.”

Holsteins, the most popular dairy cow breed, are naturally horned. For safety and other reasons, food producers have the cows’ horns removed, which can be a painful process for grown cows.

CRISPR technology might allow for a humane fix to this practice.

“I’ve done that, and it’s not fun, and doing that to an animal is not the nicest thing to do,” Clover Adams said. “They can use that CRISPR technology and they can edit (the cow) so that they don’t have horns.”

Thiel said that CRISPR differs from the “long, intensive process” of genetic modification by allowing researchers to target solely a desired trait, and make changes using only DNA from the same organism.

“One of the arguments from a genetic modification standpoint that folks have had concern with is the fact that you’re using DNA from another species in order to rectify the problem within a certain species,” Thiel said. “This allows for modification within the same species.”

However, as with GMOs, some people oppose CRISPR technology, though Clover Adams said it can make processes like this better for both the animal and the vet.

Everyone has a right to question and to want to learn more, Thiel said, and as the application of CRISPR becomes more widespread, the industry needs to be transparent and ensure the public is informed about how it will benefit them.

As with CRISPR, Clover Adams said the department will watch the move towards technologies such as lab-produced meat with interest.

While she isn’t certain the public will accept the new tech, if they do, it bodes well for the adoption of other new technologies in food production, she said.

“I’ve always been amazed that, as human beings, we accept our smartphones and what the doctor does to our body, but we won’t accept that same technology in food production,” Clover Adams said.

CRISPR technology is relatively new and Thiel said she couldn’t estimate when the first CRISPR-modified product might hit shelves.However, she said she’s cautiously optimistic and excited for the tech to be in their toolbox.

“There are really issues that are plaguing our members and our ability to produce food here in the state of Michigan, inside the United States and outside, in regards to disease pressures, insect issues and whatnot,” Thiel said.

“If this is an opportunity to help us continue to provide a safe, nutritious, healthy food supply, then we want to continue to allow for innovation and see where this leads us,” she said.

LANSING — Michigan’s wine industry continues to grow with the number of approved commercial wineries rising from 55 to 138 in the past 10 years.

Although Michigan is the fourth-largest grape-growing state, an inadequate supply of Michigan-grown grapes, rather than possible oversaturation of the market, might be the industry’s major concern, said Karel Bush, the executive director of the state’s Grape and Wine Industry Council.

Current in-state and out-of-state markets are sufficient for existing wineries to survive, Bush said. So is the acreage for vineyards in the state.

“There is absolutely room for continued growth in the number of wineries in all regions of the state,” she said. “Just take a look at Napa Valley. It has more than 400 wineries in an area about twice the size of the Leelanau Peninsula, which has just 26 wineries.”

As a co-owner of Spare Key Winery, a newly approved winery in Charlevoix, Jean McCarthy said she doesn’t believe the state is oversaturated in the number of wineries.

The other newly approved wineries are in Baroda, Detroit, Hastings, Shelby Township, Roseville, Watervliet and Onsted.

“We continue to expand our vineyard each year,” McCarthy said. “We will continue to add to our wine selections and continue to offer our wines for sale through our tasting room. We offer 11 types of wine for sale, consisting of seven grape wines and four fruit wines.”

For most Michigan wineries, the great majority of sales are made from their tasting rooms or in local restaurants and retailers. “Selling locally provides greater profit potential,” Bush said, “even for the largest wineries that have more distribution.”

The wines made in Michigan are similar in style to classic European wines that consumers are familiar with.

“Our cool climate and unique growing conditions, like the ‘lake effect’ from Lake Michigan, result in wines with flavors and aromas unique to our region,” Bush said. “A chardonnay grown in Michigan will not taste the same as one grown in California. That regional character is very desirable.”

Bush said that beyond the state’s borders, Michigan wines are appearing in restaurants in New York, Washington, D.C. and even San Francisco. “Those placements are the result of very hard work on the part of the winery, establishing relationships with chefs and wine professionals in key markets,” Bush said.

Peter Anastor, director of the Agriculture Development Division in the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the agency is promoting wineries, including educating winery owners about exporting their products to international markets.

“And we also try to promote our products as much as we can throughout the country and make sure people are aware of some of the attributes of Michigan wines,” Anastor said.

According to Bush, the largest out-of-state market for Michigan wineries is Illinois, especially the Chicago area.

“Some wineries in Southwest Michigan tell us that more than half their sales are to visitors from the Chicago area,” Bush said. “Those visitors see Michigan as their ‘local’ wine region.”

Gov. Rick Snyder mentioned the industry in his recent State of the State address. “The economic impact of that industry is now $5.5 billion industry, up from $300 million in 2005,” he said.

Michigan wineries supported more than 47,000 jobs and contributed nearly $253 million in tourism spending last year, according to the Grape and Wine Industry Council.

One of the primary challenges the industry faces is an inadequate supply of wine grapes grown in the state, Bush said.

“We currently have just over 3,000 acres of wine grapes around the state, and to meet the increased demand for Michigan wine, that acreage needs to increase every year,” she said. “But suitable vineyard property is expensive, and when you plant vines, you have to nurture them for three to four years before you get enough to produce a salable quantity.”

Also, a spring freeze is a double-edged sword for growers.

Matt Moersch, a winemaker and distiller at Round Barn Winery in Baroda, said, “It affects us with either a total loss, depending on the stage of the plant, or some natural thinning which improves overall fruit quality.”

According to Moersch, the only way to solve the supply problem is to keep farmers growing grapes in the state. “We need to be able to inform future growers and showcase what we are currently doing successfully.”

New technologies have been brought into the industry, such as Flash Détente introduced at Black Star Farms north of Traverse City.

Besides the technologies, the state is providing education and training to grape growers and wine makers.

For example, Bush said the Grape and Wine Industry Council organizes an annual conference with sessions on grape production, wine production, business management, sales and marketing. The 2018 conference is scheduled for Feb. 28 through March 2 in Kalamazoo.

“Michigan State University Extension also has an education program for all agricultural operations, including grape growers,” Bush said.

Anastor said he’s confident about the future growth of the industry. “There’s a lot more capacity to grow wine grapes here in Michigan and to increase the volume of production,” he said.

LANSING – According to research studies on the perception about land use, many farmers’ attitudes are still rooted in using their private land to grow crops, focusing on increasing productivity.

Fewer of them would think about taking conservation actions, the studies found.

However, what if these activities are not wildlife-friendly? What if these types of land management hurt wildlife habitat?

“There are some people who don’t have interest in wildlife. Some agriculture practices and different land use practices are not good for pheasants,” said AI Stewart, a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) upland game bird specialist.

But landowners have the right to manage their property as they choose, he said.

Anna Mitterling of Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC) has worked for more than three years to broaden the perceptions of landowners and break land-use stereotypes.

Mitterling, the organization’s wildlife cooperative coordinator, promotes a comprehensive program to assist landowners in better land management and planning for future needs.

The Michigan Wildlife Cooperative is a voluntary conservation effort supported by the DNR, the Quality Deer Management Association, Pheasants Forever and MUCC.

A wildlife cooperative gathers private landowners, hunters and wildlife enthusiasts to enhance their local wildlife and habitat. The participants share their wildlife experiences with each other, accumulate more knowledge of wildlife from activities, improve relationships with neighbors and have a chance to use land management techniques on a bigger scale.

Currently, Michigan has 120 wildlife cooperatives, a number that has been increasing since 1991, according to the MUCC.

“The ones I work with are often larger over time, with 25 or so members, and 3,000 -12,000 acres of combined properties,” Mitterling said.

Deer cooperatives and pheasant cooperatives are two of the major types in Michigan.

Deer cooperatives focus on the quality of deer herds. Pheasant cooperatives work to create and enhance grassland habitats.

“In our deer cooperative, we have an annual buck pole, we do a youth deer pole on the weekend of the youth hunt and we work with the DNR to put a plane in the air to look for poachers,” said Harold Wolf, the president of the Southern Mecosta Whitetail Management Association.

Wolf said cooperatives are good for the people who join: He got to know his neighbors better, felt pride in improving the deer herd and shared happy experiences and memories with family and friends.

As for pheasant cooperatives, Lake Hudson Pheasant Cooperative leader David Ames said, “Most of us are hunters. We focus on creating grassland habitat pheasant can survive in.”

His cooperative is based in Lenawee County.

Despite such benefits, some landowners decide not to take part.

“The biggest challenge for us is finding private landowners that want to participate,” Ames said.

One reason for landowner concern is the size of their property. Many think their land is too small to support conservation activities, Ames said. “A small amount of land, like 20 acres, would be big enough that we can help them to do something on it,” he added.

Ames also stressed the significance and necessity of wildlife and land use education.

In terms of the land use stereotypes, Ames suggested more outreach and said that elementary education about wildlife conservation may lead to more changes in property owners’ attitudes and land use stereotypes.

Rick Lucas, a wildlife and forestry professional with the Mecosta/Osceola Lake Conservation District in Reed City, said, “The common denominator of every natural resource and conservation issue across the state is people.”

Sara Kross, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at California State University, Sacramento, researched the impact of farmers’ perceptions on their conservation activities.

She found a positive relationship between their perceptions and conservation efforts. For instance, general farmers thought perching birds and bats significantly help control insect pests, while fruit farmers view them negatively.

]]>Aquaculture is growing more common in Michiganhttp://news.jrn.msu.edu/2017/12/aquaculture-is-growing-more-common-in-michigan/
Mon, 18 Dec 2017 17:06:29 +0000http://news.jrn.msu.edu/?p=355802

For most seafood consumers, where their fish comes from may be a mystery. Russell Allen, a small business owner in Okemos, is on a mission to end the mystery for consumers.

Ideally fish would come from a supplier who catches them naturally, by fishing. But more often than not, commercially sold fish are grown on fish farms, an industry known as aquaculture.

Check the internet today and you will find many people against this practice, but ask someone who knows and you may get some totally different answers.

“Aquaculture is a younger industry than chickens or pigs or cattle so people are still learning,” said Russell Allen, a fish seller and longtime aquaculturist. “If you go and are logical about what you buy and where it comes from, there’s good places and bad places.”

Allen is the owner of Farm Fresh Seafood, a seafood market in Okemos. Allen and his business promote the idea of quality farm fishing and proudly sell fish that is farmed in Michigan.

“Our goal is to educate people on how farm raised fish really is good,” said Allen.

The mission statement for his store proudly claims transparency for the customers so that they know exactly the kind of fish they are consuming. Allen said he first got into the aquaculture business because of the negative environmental impacts of naturally catching shrimp.

“I know there’s been a lot of bad talk about farm raised fish but there’s way more good farm raised fish,” said Allen.

The main driving force behind aquaculture is to find ways to prevent overfishing and sustain the seafood industry.

“The majority of fisheries that are wild are unsustainable,” said Allen. “The only way to maintain eating fish which is the least stressful on the environment is to grow more fish.”

The term aquaculture may sometimes carries a negative connotation for those who do not know a lot about the industry and can scare people away.

“It kind of sounds disgusting,” said Raven Jones, a Meridian resident. “I’d rather have fish that came from a real river or ocean.”

Some consumers give little to no thought about where their fish comes from, and may be turned off to find out that it isn’t always the ocean.

“I feel like it wouldn’t be as good,” said Meridian resident Kyle Parcel, “Like it may not be as safe to eat either.”

Although some internet blogs claim that farm raised fish doesn’t taste as good as wild caught fish, studies show only a very subtle difference. Even Allen admits that wild caught fish has leaner meat, but assures that only a expert could taste the difference.

At the Okemos Kroger, wild caught and farm raised fish are sold side by side.

“We sell both kinds, a wide variety of farm raised stuff but we also have a lot of wild caught fish too,” said Michael Woodworth, a meat and fish specialist at Kroger. “People tend to like the wild caught fish better, and they’ll pay more for it.”

In countries with little to no regulations on aquaculture, fish may be grown in pens pumped full of chemicals, and idea that scares off most consumers. Allen assures that this is not the case.

“There’s been all kinds of talk about the use of antibiotics and pesticides, but here in the United States that’s against the law,” said Allen “There isn’t anything approved to use for that.”

Farm Fresh Seafood has a partnership with the Indian Brook Trout Farm, a fish supplier in Jackson. The farm is a locally owned by Owen Ballow, a long time aquaculturist. Like Allen, Ballow and his team are proponents of aquaculture in Michigan.

Ballow and his business supply over 3,000 businesses around Michigan. Their fish is grown on site and delivered every day. Ballow is a veteran of the aquaculture industry and aims to help consumers understand its necessity.

“If we were running out of cattle, the only way to make sure we maintained enough would be to domesticate them. And it’s the same with fish,” said Ballow.

Fish farms like the Indian Brook Trout Farm are set up on land and cause no damage to the environment because their fish pens do not affect an already existing ecosystem. Net-pen farming occurs when fish pens are placed in a naturally formed body of water. This type of aquaculture is a topic of debate for environmentalists right now on the internet, specifically about the Great Lakes.

Fish farming in the Great Lakes was first started by Canadian Gord Cole in 1982. At the time it was a revolutionary idea that developed into a multi-billion dollar industry. Despite the success, the only known fish pens are in Canadian waters.

“There are fisheries in the lakes but they’re all in Canadian waters and they’re not huge facilities,” said Ballow. “They’ve been monitored for 15 years and as far as we can tell they’re not doing any major damage to the environment.”

According to Ballow, there are other socioeconomic factors that make Canada better for the net-pen farming. There are no people or businesses along the coast where the pens are located. The Michigan coasts are much more populated, and so more people would be affected by the pens.

Advocates against these pens claim that they would inhibit recreational use in the lakes and create too much waste in the water. Fortunately, the U.S. has regulations in place that prohibit any net-pen farming for this reason.

“All of the guidelines for the U.S. state that when you raise fish you have to be able to control all of the fish waste, and you can’t collect any of the waste in the net-pen system,” said Ballow. “To me it doesn’t matter if people think it’s good or bad, unless federal regulations change it won’t be permitted to happen.”

It is unlikely that regulations will ever change to allow for net-pen farming in the Great Lakes. This is good, the strict regulations in place are what make U.S. farm raised fish safe to eat.

“Farm raised fish are really specific to a geography on whether they’re good or not,” said Ballow. Ballow is a firm believer that we should end the stigma against consuming farm raised fish.

Allen also assures his customers not to be afraid of aquaculture.

“What you get in Michigan and what you get in this store has all been testified, certified and is good,” said Allen.

]]>DeWitt using their budget to create a go to destinationhttp://news.jrn.msu.edu/2017/12/dewitt-using-their-budget-to-create-a-go-to-destination/
Mon, 18 Dec 2017 15:21:48 +0000http://news.jrn.msu.edu/?p=352864

Michael Dobbin

City Hall sign

The city of DeWitt is starting to become a cultural hub and a go-to destination. A lot of money is being put into the development of their downtown.

Maricela Vargas is a preschool teacher in Lansing who is looking for a job in DeWitt and she is interested in DeWitt because of the small city feel. When Vargas visited DeWitt, she felt the family connection with the residents.

Vargas said: “I was attracted to DeWitt because it’s a cute city and it’s going to be a great place to live. Their downtown is incredible, I have a lot of places to eat and go out. What attracted me to DeWitt is that everyone is friendly and the improvements they’re making to the city.”

Michael Dobbin

A few stores in downtown DeWitt

The City of DeWitt has a yearly budget that is being put into more than 20 different funds. Previous budget years, city council and administration member share mutual goals of maintaining a minimum 25 percent of a fiscal year’s expenditures in the general fund balance.

The general fund budget for Dewitt is more than $3 million.

City Administrator Dan Coss said that DeWitt’s general fund is the largest fund for the city. Coss said, “The general fund pays for all operations of the City, staff, buildings, grounds maintenance, and parks.”

Along with the general fund, the building and grounds, are a variety of activities that are funded from their budget. Major use for this budget includes recycling contract, street improvements, and streetlights.

Each year over the past decade, the population of DeWitt is constantly growing. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, DeWitt’s population this year is over 4,700, which is the most since 2000. Coss wants the community to keep growing and that’s why he believes that constantly improving DeWitt with the yearly budget will help raise that number.

DeWitt is putting an emphasis on creating downtown DeWitt a place where people want to move to. They are putting more money into funds such as Major Street fund and they signed a three-year contract with Beckett & Raeder for their planning services. Beckett & Raeder is a planning firm that is highly touted for their services. The major street fund increased 2 percent to accommodate current projects happening in downtown DeWitt.

Michael Dobbin

Main St

The City and the DDA designate money to be used for Capital Improvements in the downtown each year. In 2018 DeWitt are reconstructing Main Street and adding new street lighting, crosswalks and a new traffic signal.

Coss wants DeWitt to be an attractive place for people to live and they are developing DeWitt every year to be a city that people want to move to.

Coss said: “Creating a vibrant downtown where people want to gather and spend time, maintaining quality services, Police, Street improvements, Parks and Recreation opportunities make DeWitt a place where people want to live.”

DeWitt is constantly increasing budget to help make their city grow. DeWitt wants to make their small city name become a big city feel.

More downtown shops

Michigan State University Infrastructure Planning and Facilities, Landscape Architect Deb Kinney believes that there are a lot of ways that a small town can improve their city to attract more families to visit and eventually move to.

Kinney said: “It’s important to hire a planning firm with a lot of experience. DeWitt from a design perspective can make their town more aesthetically pleasing by adding more plants, improving the looks of store fronts, improve lighting, and develop nicer crosswalks.”

Kinney said that it is important for a town or city to have a community feel with presenting their town with different ways to attract families.

Along with making everything in the community aesthetically appealing, DeWitt wants to make their city safer by using Zoning Ordinances. The purpose of using Zoning Ordinances is to help promote public safety, welfare, and health.

DeWitt Township manager Rodney Taylor said: “Zoning defines what the makeup of your community is. We have to make sure that our zoning allows us to move forward with our Comprehensive Development Plan, which lays out the future of our community. We have to make sure the two are in tune with each other to move forward.”

Michael Dobbin

Riverside park, DeWitt

With money being taken away from development of parks around DeWitt, this can raise questions on why DeWitt isn’t improving their park facilities this year. The parks facilities budget decreased from last year’s budget by nearly $21,000. The park facilities budget fluctuates each year. There are a total of nine parks in DeWitt, ranging from sports parks to children parks.

DeWitt resident, Ray Gustafson wasn’t too pleased when he found out about the parks facilities budget decreased from last year but was happy that DeWitt improved the parks last year.

Gustafson said: “They made improvements last year, I remember. If the budget is being put to good use for other funds, then it’s ok that the park’s budget went down. I wasn’t happy initially because I think we should put more money into parks and facilities for the children. If the budget is being used to make my hometown better and attracts more families to move here then I can’t complain.”

Besides using their budget to build up their city, DeWitt has many events residents partake in each month. Coss said residents should take advantage to get involved with all of the events and be connected with each other.

Michael Dobbin

City Hall, DeWitt

Next year DeWitt will begin construction on a new city hall, located at 414 East Main Street. The $2-million, 8,000-square foot project will include the city administration offices, the police department and community rooms.

]]>Local tree farm spreads holiday cheer to troops around the countryhttp://news.jrn.msu.edu/2017/12/local-tree-farm-spreads-holiday-cheer-to-troops-around-the-country/
Sat, 09 Dec 2017 22:24:44 +0000http://news.jrn.msu.edu/?p=348397It’s the holiday season and the Peacock Family Tree Farm has paired up with a national charity, Trees For Troops, in hopes of spreading joy and cheer to those who can’t be home this Christmas.

The man who bought the farm in 1985, also known as “Farmer Ed,” says they can’t wait to reach as many people as possible this season.

“We’re hauling as many as 9,000 people during the season to go see Santa Claus. That’s really cool,” Ed said.

This year, him and his team are asking those visiting their farm to also spread cheer to troops. They are excited to be participating in Trees for Troops, giving those the opportunity to send a tree to someone currently serving.

“Over the whole nation, about 10,000 trees a year are delivered to different bases. And we’re just proud that we were selected to be one of the places to send some trees,” Ed said.

The first truck of Christmas trees went down to New Orleans last weekend, but the Peacock Family farm will be collecting donations all season long.

LANSING — Unburied cow carcasses can lead to conflict between wolves and people, according to a recent study.

The study of wolves in the Upper Peninsula found that nearly a quarter of the diet of wolves consists of cattle in areas near dairy and beef farms.

It’s not that wolves prey on livestock, said Tyler Petroelje, a doctoral candidate at Mississippi State University who led the study. Instead, it’s a result of wolves eating at dumps where farmers put dead livestock.

Experts call that an unintentional wildlife food subsidy.

The practice is illegal in Michigan, according to the 1982 law, Bodies of Dead Animals. That law requires burying animal carcasses at least 2 feet deep within 24 hours of an animal’s death.

Many livestock producers don’t know about the rule. Plus, the rendering process to properly dispose of carcasses is expensive, so they leave dead cows unburied, Petroelje said.

Farmers leave them on top of the ground where predators such as wolves scavenge for an easy meal.

Petroelje discovered that wolves were feeding at these sites after using GPS collars to track them as part of a larger study examining how predators impact fawn survival.

The research team investigated sites with a large number of location clusters from the GPS collared wolves. Occasionally these locations were carcass dumps on farms.

They discovered that carcass dumps directly changed the wolves’ behavior. Wolves that eat at them are less active and don’t travel as far, he said.

They also found that wolves preyed less on deer when supplementing their diet with livestock.

That’s a problem if wolves get used to eating the carcasses and start attacking livestock, Petroelje said. The wolves remain in smaller areas because they don’t need to hunt as intensely. That means more of them can be sustained.

This may seem like a win for wolf population recovery in Michigan, but there are negative consequences, experts say.

If wolves shrink their range, that creates room for other predator species, like coyotes, said Dean Beyer, a wildlife researcher with the Department of Natural Resources.

Petroelje said this increased predator presence can put pressure on prey species such as white-tailed deer.

And it could mean that wolves come in closer contact with people. This can lead to wolf “removal” by mandatory harvest or by landowners who feel threatened.

“If we want to minimize human-wildlife conflict, these carcass dumps are a good thing to think about,” Petroelje said.

Most farmers he met during the study were curious about what the wolves were doing on their property. In one instance a farmer buried a carcass after learning of the concerns about them, Petroelje said.

“It’s just education. They aren’t trying to violate the law,” said Jim Bowes, the deputy director of the animal industry division of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The department reminded livestock owners of the disposal regulations for carcasses in a Michigan State University Extension newsletter.

That was after receiving an unusually high number of claims from farmers that wolves had preyed on their livestock. The department also heard some people were hunting over livestock remains, using them as bait, Bowes said.

No one is examining livestock owners’ properties for carcass pits, he said. If local law enforcers receive complaints of large predation on livestock, someone may look at the farmer’s disposal practices and educate them about best practices.

Carcass dumps aren’t the only way humans can impact wildlife behavior. Other food subsidies such as bird feeders or food waste in trash and landfills can affect feeding habits.

Petroelje said food subsidies are any food from humans that is accessible to wildlife, either intentionally or unintentionally.

And Beyer said, “Overall, this research is just alerting us that as we continue to alter landscapes through human activities, it might roll into how it affects the ecosystem overall.”